Sallisaw Police Chief Candidate To Remain On Ballot

SALLISAW — Following a candidacy contest hearing, the Sequoyah County Election Board decided 3-0 Wednesday not to remove Sallisaw police chief candidate Sandra Girdner’s name from the Feb. 11 ballot.

Board Chairman Bruce Tabor said the board based its decision on a 1999 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling in an almost identical case when Sallisaw police chief candidate Joe Robertson challenged the candidacy of opponent Gary Philpot, a longtime off-and-on resident of Sallisaw who was not a resident at the time he filed as a candidate.

After the Election Board in 1999 chose to remove Philpot from the ballot, Philpot challenged the decision in Sequoyah County District Court. The district judge overturned the board’s decision, ruling that the charter’s residency requirement did not state it must be immediately before the election. When the board appealed to the Supreme Court, the higher court upheld the district court decision.

“This is an unanimous decision that she’ll be left on the ballot due to the (city) charter not stating ‘immediately’ prior, and we’re following the Supreme Court decision of 15 years ago, and in 15 years, the city has not changed the charter,” Tabor said.

Girdner’s opponent for the vacant position, Terry Franklin, challenged her candidacy shortly after the filing period ended this month because Girdner does not live within Sallisaw city limits. Franklin is a captain with the Sallisaw Police Department, and Girdner is a lieutenant with the department.

During the hourlong hearing, Franklin’s attorney, Sam “Chip” Sexton III, argued that the Sallisaw city charter sets out qualifications for anyone running for chief, including a requirement that the candidate be a resident of the city for at least one year before the election.

“And it is our opinion that means immediately prior to the election, otherwise it makes no sense,” Sexton said.

Sexton pointed out that interpreting the charter to mean that anyone who’d ever been a resident of the city for a year could result in someone being born in Sallisaw then moving away a year later only to file for the position 40 years later without having lived there in the interim. It is important to consider the intent of those who wrote the charter, he said.

Girdner’s attorney, Fourth Scoufos, noted that although Girdner currently does not live in Sallisaw, she previously lived there for more than 25 years. Scoufos also represented Philpot in 1999.

“What Mr. Franklin wants if for you to insert the word ‘immediately’ into the charter. … You’re not here to write the city charter. The drafters of the charter wrote what they meant and meant what they said, and the city hasn’t changed the charter in 15 years. We can extrapolate from that, that they agree with what it says,” Scoufos said.

Assistant District Attorney Douglas Dry, the board’s attorney, said the board received an Oct. 16 resolution from the city of Sallisaw, authorizing it to conduct the election. That resolution included candidate eligibility requirements, including a one-year residency “immediately prior” to the election. But it had attached to it a copy of the portion of the charter related to eligibility of candidates for police chief, and that does not include the word “immediately,” Dry said.

“I don’t know about the resolution saying one thing and the charter another,” Board Member Cindy Osborn said. Osborn is the Election Board secretary.

Only a vote of the people can change the city charter, Tabor said.

Sexton contended the resolution clarified what the charter means.

Scoufos argued that a resolution does not supersede the charter, which is the “law of the land.”

Dry agreed the resolution was an attempt at clarity, but he agreed, too, that the board cannot change the charter.